


I see (no) bravery here

by 247Elena



Category: The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan (Video Game)
Genre: Canon Continuation, Hallucinations, Happy Ending, No Beta, Psychological Trauma, Sort Of, What if to an ending I got on my third run through, hurt/some comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-12
Updated: 2020-04-15
Packaged: 2020-10-17 02:13:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 10,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20613251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/247Elena/pseuds/247Elena
Summary: Conrad had escaped. He had gotten on the boat. He had gotten away. But he wasn't going to leave his friends, his sister... Fliss to whatever fate he had abandoned them with. He was going back, he'll save them.





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> I'll start off by saying this was a sleep-deprived piece of work that I just had to write after getting that ending on the game. I haven't been able to write in a while but inspiration struck and I had to work this out. This is a short work, only about three maybe four chapters long, I'll see what it does through editing. It is finished though so I'll be planning weekly updates.
> 
> Thanks again and feel free to leave a comment and kudos.

Conrad felt the air move around him. It crawled over him as he sat pinned against the filthy door, the grim from it he could feel itching against his skin, washing with the sweat that beaded from his skin. How long had he been down here? Minutes? Hours? Days? It was like a bad trip. An endless spiral down the rabbit hole that he didn’t think he could crawl out from. The door had disappeared, he wasn’t sure where it had gone. His walkie-talkie too. He’d dropped that one though when he had been leaping from that… thing across a crumbling walkway. No way to call the coastguard for help now. No way to get out. But he needed to find Julia… and Fliss and Alex and Brad. He had promised them. Say what you like about him, but Conrad liked to think that when he said he’d do something then he was sure to do it. A promise is a promise is a promise. He’d sworn he’d seen Brad, walking out the corner of his eyes one time but when he had turned it’d just been that thing again and again Conrad was running for his life. Now he was stuck in a toilet stall, his back pressed against the stall door in an attempt to keep everything else out.

Not long after he had entered the ship had Conrad realised that one of those pirates were here, it was both a relief and a nauseating realisation. One, if they were here then his friends were here but if the pirates were here… well, then the pirates were here. Unnamed Pirate Number Three, not the big boss nor the one that had attacked him while he slept, was now brandishing a fucking sledgehammer and swinging it around like a lunatic. Conrad had managed to evade all the swings so far but he wasn’t liking his chances of keeping it up.

“Alright, Conrad, keep your cool.” He huffed out, ringing his fingers nervously. “You just need to find everyone… they’ll be here… avoid old zombie lady… avoid crazed pirates… and find the door, it’ll be here somewhere.”

He laughed shakily, hanging his head between his legs. He brought a shaky hand to his eyes, the flourishing bruise still tender from his first encounter with the pirates. His ear a far worse reminder to think before he starts mouthing off again, thinking about it caused it to throb along the wound.

A sudden clang of metal on metal caused Conrad to jump, rising to his feet to peer out the crack of the stall door. His breathing hitched as he saw the pirate sway unsteadily down the restroom, closer to where Conrad hid. The man mumbled in a language Conrad couldn’t understand, French wasn’t really his top class in school. He seemed more anxious then bloodthirsty in his own opinion but Conrad wasn’t willing to see. His own breathing hitched and fluttered as the pirate stopped outside his own stall, Conrad placed a hand over his mouth in a vain attempt to stop any involuntary noises he didn’t trust himself not to make.

There was a still silence before the stall door was crashed inwards, causing Conrad to stumble rather ungracefully towards to broken toilet bowl, his feet fumbling and slipping as he fell down rather painfully. In a panic, he twisted to find the pirate dangerously heaving the sledgehammer staring down wildly at him.

And Conrad thought that this was the way he was going to go. Head caved in in a rusted, broken toilet stall. Really the way he wanted to go, though head in the toilet with alcohol poisoning wasn’t actually off the table with him if he was being honest with himself.

But the pirate hesitated. The sledgehammer swayed heavily in the air as the pirate heaved and strained with the weight of holding it up, his breath coming out too loudly for Conrad not to fear that that dead thing would hear and come. The pirate's eyes crept up to the wall behind Conrad and suddenly that crazed aided eye look seemed to panic even more. The weapon swung, Conrad cowered into a tight ball, closing his eyes in a hope to not have to look when the hammer would meet his skull. Again there was the jarring metal on metal sound, his ears ringing painfully at the sharp sound, and Conrad for a split second thought that wasn’t how his skull getting smashed in was supposed to sound. And then he thought, how was he thinking if his head had just been caved in? He dared to peek out, one eye cracking open. The crazed pirate seemed more fearful of whatever was on the toilet stall wall behind him then Conrad, he backed up unsteadily, stumbling a bit before he gave a terrifying shrike and running away.

Conrad sat there for a few moments, trying to take in the fact that he had somehow survived. He stayed that way until he had managed to level out his breathing enough to feel like he wasn’t drowning in this thick air around him. His hand gripped almost painfully on the toilet bowl behind him as he tried to levy himself up, his hand slipping and cutting himself on the broken porcelain. Hissing, Conrad tried to ignore the stabbing pain as he brought himself upwards. Cradling his hand, he took a few uncertain steps out of the stall, looking nervously from side to side. Though Conrad didn’t want to move, the prospect of encountering another horror weighing heavily on him, he didn’t want to stay either. It was dizzying. With reluctant footing, Conrad moved out of the restroom. He had to find the others after all.

——

“God, I hope Connie made it back alright.” Julia had mumbled for what felt like the hundredth time since they had gotten back on the Duke and made course back to shore. They weren’t far off now according to Fliss, a few more hours at the most but it was still too long for Julia.

All of them had survived by some miracle, even that pirate Junior had gotten out in one piece and sat quietly on the Duke away from everyone else. No one wanted to say anything to raise the tensions, no one even had enough energy to remain angry anymore. It seemed insignificant after everything else that had happened.

The first thing Fliss had done after starting up the Duke was trying to radio into the coastguard but unfortunately, the radio hadn’t survived the journey in the greatest of conditions. Not that she would make it all too obvious to anyone else on board, but she was just as anxious about Conrad as any of them. Before they had been held hostage, she and Conrad had gotten along rather well. She’d dare say that she may have actually grown to like him… quite a bit. She had wanted to see if Conrad at least made it back to shore alright. That storm… To any inexperienced person, it’d be near impossible to navigate let alone not capsize. In Conrad’s condition as well… well, Fliss wasn’t sure how clearly he would have been thinking either.

“Don’t worry, Julia.” Alex placed an arm around her. “Conrad’s resourceful, I’m sure he made it back to shore.”

“Yeah, I mean, he probably has the whole coastguard on high alert looking for us.” Brad chipped in trying to ease Julia’s apprehension. “If he didn’t happen to find a liquor store on his way beforehand that is.”

“Alright guys, we should reach the mainland in an hour or so now, though I don’t know what the fuck we’re going to tell the coastguard what happened.” Fliss sighed, leaving the helm to go seat with the others on deck. “We can’t mention we found a wreck unless we want to get into serious trouble and I honestly don’t think they’ll believe anything about the Medan or what we saw in there.”

“I mean, we could just stick to a hostage situation.” Alex shrugged. “Conrad’s probably already told them as much, we just say they came on the boat and then the storm hit, I dunno they realised they were fucked when Conrad took off, got spooked and drove back to the mainland and let us go.”

“Not exactly a foolproof story,” Fliss mumbled, sighing under her breath at the thought of having to try and worm her way out of this situation.

“Or believable.” Julia said.

“Well, if you guys come up with a better one I’m all ears.” Alex huffed, crossing his arms.

“And what about me.” Came a deep voice, one they hadn’t heard the entire trip back.

“We should send your ass to prison is what,” Julia bit out. “In ,fact I don’t even know why we let you on the boat to begin with.”

“Hey, Julia, take it easy.” Alex said, his hand coming to rest on her lap in an attempt to calm her down.

“No I will not,” Julia ground out. “We would have never gone onto that goddamn ship if it wasn’t for them. Conrad could be dead for all we know and we just let him tag along like he deserves it.”

“I didn’t want to hurt anyone, we only needed the money.” Junior spoke, though it wasn’t with defence but in a heavy regret. The man was tired and weary, he hadn’t wanted to be a part of this life, that was more his brother Olson’s doing than anything else.

“So that excuses everything you guys put us through?” Brad asked, his voice pinched.

“No, it does not.” Junior replied solemnly.

“Look, as far as I see it, if we take him into authorities they’ll start asking questions we can’t answer.” Fliss argued. “And besides, I think we’ve all gone through enough shit already. I say we’ve all suffered enough.”

“Right, of course.” Julia said, though her glare spoke that she wasn’t entirely on board with the notion, she said nothing more on the matter.

Julia twirled the engagement ring on her finger. She was supposed to be happy, over the moon in fact. Drinking herself into a coma with Conrad and making wedding plans with Alex. Yet she could barely think passed the next hour. Think passed finding out whether Conrad made it or not. Think past trying to get back into a normal life after all this. She was angry. She was confused. She was frightened. They may have gotten out of that place but Julia didn’t think it would ever leave her. A cloud that loomed over her for the rest of her life.

The hour passed slower then any of them would have liked. When they arrived on shore, none of them were quite sure what to do, Junior parted in silence, having nothing to him other then his clothes. Fliss’s jeep remained where it had before untouched since the day they had left for the voyage. She was the first one to hop off of the Duke.

“Alright, everyone in the car, we’ll stop at the coastguard report what has happened and see if Conrad showed up there.” Fliss said. It felt good finally having some control over her life again, knowing what to do.

Julia had caught up to Fliss’s brisk pace, walking with her some distance from the others.

“Look I know we haven’t exactly gotten along great, but I know Connie actually sort of liked you,” Julia rambled a bit.

“So not what I want to talk about right now.” Fliss dismissed.

“What I mean to say is, I know you’re worried about him too.’

Fliss didn’t say anything but did nod her head at Julia.

And one by one they all clambered into the jeep, driving in silence to the coastguard.


	2. Chapter Two

Conrad had felt like he had walked down this corridor before. This all looked the same but then he supposed the ship wasn’t exactly designed to be different or have any notion for taste. Right now he had to retrace his steps which was a little difficult to do if the goddamn hallways kept changing around on him. He knew he dropped his walkie-talkie somewhere around here, if he could get a hold of that then he could call out for help. Get back to the coastguard, get the whole damn army here. Get them to deal with whatever mess they had made here. 

Yet the voices kept on nagging at him and it didn’t matter how many times he told them to shut the fuck up, that they would give him away, they kept on going. And going. And going. And going. And going...

“Alright, alright guys, I get it. You all got me.” Conrad chuckled, a nervous tinge drawing out his words for too long. “This is just a big prank, isn’t it? Good one, ya got me.”

  
A sharp screech echoed so closely that Conrad could swear he felt it rush past his back, he spun around, trying to catch out whatever it was. Upon seeing nothing, he let out a nervous chuckle once more.

“Nothing there, nothing there.” Conrad mumbled out. “You really went all out with this one, Julia! Stage a kidnapping. Make me escape. Come back here to this ‘ghost ship’. Gotta tell ya, the hired zombie girl really has me going. B-but I think it’s enough now. I think it’s shows over, curtains closed. Bravo, you win!”

Turning around, Conrad stumbled backward, letting out a ‘Jesus Christ’ as he stared at the thing in front of him. It had found him. How did it find him? It wasn’t real. _It is real_. It can’t hurt him. _She’s going to peel your skin off, strip by strip._

The hunched over form of what used to be a woman, jerked in unnatural movements towards him. The grey withered skin, pulled taut around the boney structure that jutted out in odd angles, the once luscious hair brittled and falling out, frayed out at the ends like it had been singed with fire. The thing had been tracking him all through the ship, when he finally thought he had gotten rid of it, it always seemed to find him. His heart had missed a beat more then once, becoming painfully aware of it as it strained in his chest. The thing… the ghost was all too real. Even down to the stench, it gave off. Reeking of decay that rose through Conrad’s nostrils causing him to heave slightly.

He thought that if he didn’t move maybe the thing wouldn’t notice him. Maybe it would just walk away from here and never come back. But of course that was too much wishful thinking. The thing’s head jerked to the side a little, the movement too inhuman, before snapping up and shrilling at Conrad, his ears ringing and aching at the piercing sound, he feared that he may be deaf from it.

“Oh fuck no!” Conrad scrambled back, bolting down the corridor with no real mind for where he was going, only with the single thought of getting as far away from it as possible. “Shit! Shit! Shit!” Conrad leaped from beam to beam, his feet slightly slipping against the rusted beams causing him to lose his balance. At the last second, Conrad’s hands caught the beam, the cut on his hand stinging painfully under the duress of his weight. He groaned as he tried to levy himself up, his fatigue weighing heavily on him as he puffed a few breathes and pulled himself up, jumping safely to solid ground and hopeful at some distance away from that thing. He chanced a look behind to find the thing gone, he huffed a sigh of relief which was all too short lived when he heard scratching echoing from the floor below him. His eyes flickered down to find the thing hobbling towards him. Its face snapped up at him, screaming at him.

“Oh come on!” Conrad groaned, his feet taking off again as he made his way down the corridors, jumping over left over crates that never got opened. When he finally felt he had gained some distance from the thing, he slowed his pace down to a brisk walk. When he was finally able to take stock of the room he was in, he sucked in a sharp breath. Four caskets were placed in the room, an eerie cathedral stood at the front of them. “What the fuck…”

The room was oddly tranquil in the ’calm before the storm’ kind of way.. Any edge that was gnawing at Conrad spiked a little as he stepped into it. “Nope, not creepy at all.” He moved his flashlight over the casket lids, seeing the name of a solider on one. A child in another. Conrad hadn’t just been wandering this ship aimlessly, he had read things here and there. The crew getting antsy on the ship, seeing things that weren’t really there. It was a fucking ghost ship in Conrad’s personal opinion, cause there was no way Julia could have done all this, no matter how much he wanted to believe all this was fake.

He sank to the floor, leaning against one of the coffins, staring at the wall blankly. He felt too empty, like nothing was inside him despite how his hands were trembling too badly to not say he wasn’t frightened. He sat there for some time, finding a brief amount of escape in that moment. He felt like he was dreaming and falling all the while he was sitting still on the ground. For a moment, Conrad thinks he can still feel the warmth of the sun from the sky spreading across his skin, the burn of it from staying too long, the way it bathed him, mingled with the cool breeze of the air and how his body embraced it.

Instead of that warm peace though, something different than it chills his body and burns his lungs, squeezing at his heart to the point of it aching. Fear. Not only of what was in this place but for all that he would face before the end, for the unknowing that faced him at every turn. Did it matter if he got up? Would it only prolong what was going to come no matter what? Maybe his sister... Fliss... his friends weren't here. Maybe this was all for nothing. But if it wasn't, if they were on this ship, he couldn't leave them here. 

Eventually when the room became too quiet, aside from the dripping of water echoing from the metal walls, Conrad finally mustered the energy to carry himself up to his feet again. To walk from metal room to metal room again.

Honestly Conrad didn’t know how much he could take. He had been in here for too long and he felt too tired, exhausted. There was the briefest moment where he thought about just giving up. Let whatever fucking ghost wanted him, take him and be done with it. Everything hurt at this point and if he encountered crazed pirate again he wasn’t sure he’d have the strength to fight him off.  
——

“Hello! Open up!” Fliss banged at the coast guard office, her fist curling as she drew it back. There was an unbridaled rage that shimmered inside her, it had grown inside since she had gotten on the Duke all those hours ago. It had flared when she thought back on everything they had been put through, it grew when she thought about how tired she was. It dampened when she was realised how much that tiredness weighed down, how it held in her bones and ached in her feet. 

The door swung door, and for a quick second the man, Dave Fliss recognised, looked a little confused until his face morphed into relief. “Fliss? When did you guys get back? We didn’t get a call in.”

Julia pushed forward impatiently, “Is my brother here? Did Conrad make it back?” her eyes scanned the room as though she expected her brother to be hiding from them. investigating every dark corner of the room before her. Her forehead clutches in desperation and with every millisecond that passes and she doesn't see her brother it morphs into sunken horror.

“He isn’t with you? He went with the rescue team,” Dave scrunched his brows slightly, it took him a moment to realise what was going on. “Wait, didn’t you guys come back with the rescue team?”

“No, we’ve just been let go, came back to shore.” Alex said, trying to calm Julia’s nerves as he held her hand, gripping it tightly both to calm her and to steady her. “But Conrad made it back? He’s okay?”

“We haven’t heard back from the team since they updated us on finding on an old ship.”

It echoed in their mind. That word was like a bell tolling for warning. A grim occasion. A pounding in their hearts. They could feel it as though it were in unity.

  
“What?” Brad mumbled. He couldn't breathe for a second. Which was crazy, because he should be breathing. He should be alright because they weren't on that ship anymore. They were here. He was here. Yet the thought was reeling him back like a fishing line and just as suddenly as the word had been said, he was back there. Living through a hell he never thought he would have to. Thinking that every step he took could be his last. 

“They didn’t go on that ship did they?” Fliss asked worriedly, she tries to even her breathing to lessen the panic that rattles in her but it's not enough. “Tell me they didn’t go in that ship.”

“Your friend Conrad said that he wanted to make sure that none of you were stranded on there," Dave tried to reassure them. "Look I’m sure if anything has happened the coastguard team would have radioed in.” 

“Please can you make contact,” Julia pleaded, rushing forward to the man. “I have to hear my brother’s voice I have to know he’s okay.”

Dave raised his hands placidly, “Okay, okay. I’ll do a check-up, it’s only been five hours since the last check-in they’re due for another soon anyway.” Dave went towards the radio, clicking it on. “This is the coastguard calling out to search team one do you read me? Over.”

“Coastguard, this is Search Team one, we read you. Over.” A voice crackled over the radio. 

  
“We’ve got the Duke of Milan crew here safe and sound, requesting your immediate return. Over.” Dave replied.

“That might be a problem.” The voice paused for a minute. “We’ve lost contact with Conrad in the ship. We sent two more people in to search for him but we haven’t heard back from them in thirty minutes and they are no longer responding. Over.”

“Oh god,” Julia cried out, she closes her eyes and jerked back a step, as though the news had physically hit her.

Oh, God. 

Her brother was on that ship.

And she was here. 

Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes.

Dave’s face turned stern. “How long have you been out of contact with Conrad? Over.”

“Four hours, he seemed on edge in the last check-in, said something was following him. Dave, the guys we sent in. They said it’s on old world warship, said the entire crew is dead in there… they also said they were seeing things in there. Hearing things. Over.” The voice cracked with a tone of nerves.

“Oh my god, Alex, he’s in there all by himself. He’s been in that place for five hours, what if he’s dead already?!” Julia cried out, Alex looked nearly as worried, trying in vain to comfort hysteric fiance, urging her to breathe through it.

“Alright, keep me updated on any other developments over, we’ll send some people out to aid you. Over.” Dave replied calmly, though it sounded more like a forced sense of calmness trained into him through years of service. He standing hunched over the radio away from the people he knew where shaken even further by what they had heard.

“Yes, sir. Over.”

Dave turned to the four others in the room. “You know what’s on that ship.” It wasn’t a question. A statement. An accusation at Fliss. They knew each other well enough. Enough for him to know about her permit... Enough for him to let it pass. 

“Look, we were kidnapped, the pirates used our boat to find that ship because they thought it had treasure on it.” Fliss tried to explain when the others didn't reply. She needed to save whatever was left for her to come back to here. "We didn't go in there voluntarily."

“It’s an old World War II freighter ship, from what we found, they were transporting this chemical, a hallucinogen but something must have happened and it leaked, reacted to electricity. Everyone on the ship went insane, died of heart attacks because of what they were seeing.” Brad rambled nervously, stammering slightly. “The pirates thought the Menchurian gold was treasure but it was this drug. We all saw crazy shit.”

“Look, we have to go back there, we have to get Conrad and your men out.” Alex implored, his urgency shaking in his hands. “That place… being in there for that long…”

“I can’t just let you guys go back, you were reported as kidnapped and by your own accounts have been under severe duress for almost the past twelve hours and drugged for half of it.” Dave argued, the whole situation seemed off to him and he knew that Fliss wasn’t telling him everything, not that she ever really did. “There are procedures in place for a reason and you know that Fliss.”

  
“Look we know what to expect, we can help!” Julia snapped out of Alex’s hands, striding with a new form of confidence and determination to find her brother.

There was a moment where he stared at Julia, his resolve steeling before crumbling, seeing the determination urged by fear in her. “Fine, you can come along, I’m not risking sending too many more people already. I’ll have to still report this in so we can start on an investigation into this vessel but we can go ahead and go out and see if we can help.” Dave relented, backing down slightly. “You said that it’s a drug? Do you know how it was spread?”

“It’s gas. Never dispersed from the ship.” Brad chipped in again.

“We’ll bring gas masks then, I can’t risk sending more people in there without any protection.” Dave nodded, sounding weary. “We should head out now, while we still have daylight, it’ll only take five hours, four if the weather stays clear.”

  
“Jesus,” Julia punched out under her breath. “That’s still too long.”

“It’s all we can do, Julia.” Alex reassured though he didn’t know how much of a comfort it was for him. Doubt had crept into him, gnawed at him when he had found out how long Conrad had been in that ship for and now knowing two more armed individuals were in the ship… he could only think back to how close he had come to killing Fliss, how close all of them had come to killing each other in that place, so what he said next was a lie he couldn't believe. He had tried to be level headed, tried to be strong for Julia and his brother throughout this but he could start to feel himself doubt his own words. “He’ll be okay.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hit me up on tumblr 
> 
> @parabataibros


	3. Chapter Three

____The things were around him. The dead. Ghosts. They reached at him from the walls, clawed at him, he could feel their fingertips wisp against him as he tried to stay just out of reach. Brenton had lost contact with Warren some time ago and any attempts he had made to radio in to the Rescue Team outside had nothing but static. He had seen that monster lurking out the corner of his eyes, the grotesque beast echoed his footsteps but every time Brenton turned and faced the thing, ready to shoot it, it disappeared into the mist. Melted away as though it was never there, to begin with, a mirage in a desert that he had been wandering through.

This whole shit storm was way more than just a simple kidnapping. And now he was walking around this mass grave looking for some rich kid because he couldn’t wait five minutes for them to get a status report from the mainland. They should have made him stay on that goddamn boat.

A creak groaned behind him, a long drawn out moan rebounded from the metal walls, the hands fluttering with its vibration. On instinct, Brenton’s gun was drawn, cocked as he swung around to face whatever was behind him. He moved with trained steadiness, down the hallway and through the rooms, each second twitching his finger, waiting for it to show itself. How long had he been here, circling these rooms with the tension of a pulled back bowstring? How long had the monster been circling its prey? It was a shadow he wasn't shaking. A ghost that clung to him.

That goddamn thing was following him.

And it was going to rip him apart.

——

  
Conrad was walking down hallways again, the edges darkening at the corner of his eyes. When he had left that weird graveyard room he thought he would finally be making some form of progress. Like he had finally left whatever loop he had been stuck in for who knows how long but then he entered it again and that pit of hopelessness hollowed into him. It ate away in his stomach like a virus too hungry to stop, spreading its tendrils in him and clinging to what it could. For a moment, Conrad feared he could feel it moving underneath his skin. He swore he could see his skin rise and bubble with it.

“It’s fucking with me, man. It’s just- it’s just fucking with me. It’s- they’ve got to be here. They’ve got to be.” Conrad spun, something had moved behind him. There was something there. “They’ll be here, okay.”

The beast’s, that woman’s, shriek was echoing behind him.

He could feel her right there. He could feel it get closer.

A door crept open in front of him, Conrad stepped back slightly, cautious. But when nothing happened in the next five minutes of just staring and watching, waiting for whatever monster decided to jump out and grab him, Conrad moved to open and enter the room.

  
“What the-“ Conrad stared in wonder. The room was pristine. No dust nor rust. The long table was set with clean china that hadn't been used. A bottle of half-drunk whiskey sat at the head and Conrad’s first instinct was to reach for it and drink himself out of this place. And a painting of what he assumed to be the captain hung above one of the cabinets. It was like a time capsule. The room even felt warm compared to the other parts of the ship, it soothed his nerves as he relaxed into the atmosphere, drinking it in as though he hoped to get hopelessly drunk in it.

As he moved around the room, running his fingers along the table expecting to catch dust yet receiving nothing, Conrad realised this must have belonged to the captain. He figured that the man must have done something to cause this whole fucked up situation.

And then he felt it move.

He grabbed at his right forearm as though it wasn't a part of him. Watching in horror as a tendril bubbled under his skin, slithering up his arm like a snake. He scratched furiously at it, his skin turning red under the duress, but that only seemed to agitate whatever was moving in his arm. It grew and grew. Growing little tendrils of its own until all Conrad could see was his whole forearm wriggling and bubbling.

He laughed because it was too absurd. He laughed because he couldn't bring himself to think about how his skin torn under his nail, flesh building underneath them, specks of blood dotting his arm and hand. He laughed because there was nothing else to laugh about.

‘Connie…’

The wriggling stopped.

The bumps faded, retreating back into his skin leaving nothing but the rivets of peeled and raw skin, burning red.

“Julia?” Conrad whispered back, looking around. His eyes strained as he peered at every dark corner, blurred from the tears.

‘Connie…’

“Julia!” Conrad shouted, running towards where the voice echoed from. Desperation and worry mingling together as he swung the door open and ran into the room.

Suddenly the starkness of reality winded him like a punch to the gut, the world titled and warped, like a haze of fog clearing into a disheartening reality. Conrad squeezed his eyes shut, shaking his head slightly as though to get rid of the heavy fog from it. When he opened his eyes again he saw her like a blinding light in a dark room.

“Julia, I found you.” Conrad moved forward, his hand outreached to touch the crouching figure, her shirt tattered and torn, skin covered in thick dirt but it was her. It was his sister. And he had found her and it was all going to be okay because he had found her.

When she said nothing back, Conrad reached for her shoulder. “Julia? Come o-“ A sharp pain exploded in his left thigh, staggering him backward. He stood where he had stumbled to. Swaying. Staring. He jerked shocked eyes down to his leg, watched as blood dribbled from a hole that hadn't been there before. He brought dulling eyes back up to Julia before crumbling to the floor. The pain was intense, acute. Perhaps he was shocked more than anything as he looked back up to his sister. There was nothing there, her face blank not looking worried or smiling. Just staring. “Julia, I don’t understand.” He couldn't understand why nothing was there.

Nothing.

A pause.

There was a moment where all she did was stare at him before walking off. A twisting feeling of hurt and betrayal knotted inside Conrad as he laid on the floor, hand pressing painfully on the fresh wound at the warm rush of blood, pinching at it, trying to stem the flow as best he could. He didn’t try to see where his sister had gone, right now he didn’t much care.

He was going to die here.


	4. Chapter Four

The journey to that ship felt too long, though they made it in relatively quick time. None of them had spoken much on the journey there, the mixture of trepidation and fear mingling in them. The idea of going back on that ship all gnawing in their minds. The thought of what they may find eating away at them the most.

When the ship finally was in front of them again, a looming figure, they all stood. The coastguard boat that had been Conrad’s rescue team, seeming insignificant in contrast against the ship. Pulling alongside the other coastguard, the waves lapping between them, Dave finally halted their boat and suddenly the reality of returning to that ship was at the forefront of their minds. It was no longer something untouchable, a thought far away in their minds, but now it was there, too real.

“You know, I sorta hoped we’d never go back here,” Brad muttered out, his tone conveying a nervousness that all of them were feeling. "That this was all a crazy dream, I'd wake up on the boat in the morning and you'd laugh at it because it's too crazy, ya know?"

“I think we can all agree on that one,” Alex replied, wrapping an arm around Julia as he stared at the ship. It was funny in a way that it wasn't funny at, Alex and Julia were supposed to be happy. They were but they weren't. They were engaged but they hadn't had the time _to be _engaged. A few weeks ago, Alex would have thought that med school and long-distance would be some of the toughest times in his life. Now he just wanted that normalcy again.

Honestly, none of them were sure about what normal meant anymore. None of them knew what to expect going back in there, though now they were more prepared for what was to come then they were the first time.

Fliss stood silently, paling as she watched the ship loom closer to them without a word to the others. Watched as Dave hushedly talked to the other coastguard on the other boat, exchanging a worrying glance back to them as they twitch in nervous anticipation. Julia was getting restless by the time Dave had moved back over to them, her eyes unmoving from the ship that held her brother.

“The other coastguards and I’ll be-“

“Wait we’re not going in there with you?” Alex asked. Testing. And his grip around Julia tightened as though to reassure her in some way. She squeezed back, her face resolved into a calm determination.

“We can’t just let civilians enter.”

Alex just shook his head, this time, although Julia could feel how rigid he had gotten, he didn’t fight back. Julia normally would have been outraged, fought. But she trusted Alex, she knew he wouldn’t back down so easily.

Fliss just nodded. “Alright then. We’ll wait here then.”

“What the hell, Fliss?” Brad admonished.

“She’s right, Brad,” Alex said, turning to his brother pointedly. “We’ll wait here.”

Dave nodded at all of them, signaling for the other officer to get ready as they both geared up for their search of the ship.

When the four were finally alone, they all huddled around.

“Alright, tell me we aren’t just standing around here doing nothing?” Brad pushed.

“Like hell we are,” Julia said back.

Fliss nodded. “They brought extra gas masks, enough for all of us if we need them. We know our way around that ship, we can find Conrad.”

“That settles it then,” Alex said. “We’re going to find Conrad.”

For a moment they stood idly outside the rusted door of the ship before Brad decided that standing, looking at the door was doing nothing.

“You know, we have to actually go in right…”

“I know, Brad.” Alex bit out rather harshly, though Brad knew it wasn’t really directed at him. They waited a few seconds more, feet shifting on the metal floor, watching as Alex’s hand reach to push the door. Rust chipping away under the contact. Decaying.

The inside was just as they remembered, a dim and damp graveyard rather than an abandoned ship, grey, and fading. The air thick, feeling as though it stuck to their throats when they breathed it down.

They all started forward, their heart rates sparking slightly as they moved stiffly through the corridors, cradling near each other as though they feared what would happen if they parted. None of them knew where to start, where Conrad would have gone.

At the moment, then the only thing they could hear was the pounding of their feet against the floor, the slight trickle of seawater forming into puddles. And suddenly there was a loud pop, rippled as it made its way through the ship and they all stopped. It was a sound they recognised.

——

Running through the dark corridor, Brenton was desperately fleeing the masked figure blindly; his heart pitching and stuttering with every sharp breath that he sucked harshly in.

The thing hadn’t flinched. It didn’t flinch. It was still after him.

Right now, the only things he knew were the race of his heartbeat matching the pounding of his feet and the long shrieks and moans too inhuman that chased after him through the ship.

It was still alive. It was following him.

“You piece of shit,” Brenton huffed out, as he slammed the door behind him.

Yet a low howl pierced the room he had locked himself in. The sound only causing Brenton to tremble slightly.

He whipped around in a panic, there was no trying to hide now as he stared at the thing. Its hunched figure looming over him as it took long and deep breaths.

“Get away from me!” Brenton cried out, he fumbled with his gun, seeing how it shook in his hand. “Get away! Stay away from me!”

It didn’t register his words, or it didn’t care, it only took a few steps closer to him as though it dared for Brenton to try and shoot him again, slowing its form revealed itself in the light. The bubbling brown skin blistered and oozing.

“I said stay back!”

Brenton felt the cold press of the door behind him, the door handle stabbing painfully in his back as he forced himself on it. He didn’t take his eyes off of it, no matter how tempted he was to look away and pretend none of it was real.

“Stay back…” Brenton whispered hoarsely.

But no matter how many times he begged for the thing to stay away, it didn’t matter to the thing in front of him.

The creature huffed a puff of breath at him, Brenton retching at the smell of decay coming from its mouth, its low growl creeping down Brenton’s body.

It took two steps closer, the piercing sound of claw scraping on metal screeching as it lifted its clawed feet.

“Stop!” A shot rang out.

There was no response. No stopping either.

The monster continued its path towards him, growling menacingly at him before stopping right in front of him, so close that Brenton could feel the heat from its body.

Echoes of other people whispered at him, so close yet too far for him to latch on as he watched the horrid thing raise its arm above his head. Its hand stretched revealing long curled claws, rivets of brown slime running from its arm.

But none of those voices mattered, not with what was in front of him.

This thing was hovering right in front of him, an arm raised. And there was no way out this time.

This was where he was going to die.

Die on a ship that he shouldn’t have been. Die because he was too stupid to say no. And no one would ever know.

A long shriek escaped the things throat as its hand descended upon him.

Black was all he knew now.

——

“Jesus Christ!” Fliss exclaimed, her voice bouncing off the walls as she backed away slightly.

The second shot had caused the group to run at full speed, fearing the worse. A pit in Fliss’s stomach dropping when all she could see was Conrad’s corpse getting cold on the ground. When Alex had swung the door open, all she could see was the end of the hammer, dulled from use, descend upon the pinned figure. Its rise and fall steadily becoming weaker with each swing until the man slumped it to the ground with a loud thud, it still gripped tightly in his hand, however.

The man finally turned to them.

“I thought you guys said he was dead!” Fliss said, her eyes darted between Danny and Julia and Brad. “He doesn’t look dead to me.”

“He was!” Brad shouted, frozen in place as he looked at the pirate.

“Thank god you guys are seeing this too because I thought he was a hallucination.” Julia breathed, confused about what she was seeing.

Was that… could that really be him?

They were all seeing him, so a hallucination was out of the question.

Yet as he stumbled towards them, they noticed the pooling blood spill from the man’s stomach, pattering on the floor below. A few shaky steps towards them and he was already down on the ground before he made it to them.

Instantly they were frozen on the spot, unsure if they took a step forward whether the crazed pirate would suddenly jump back up and attack them.  
“Oh my god,” Julia said quietly, her eyes trailing to the caved-in remains of what use to be a person, “Is that one of the coastguards?”

“Probably,” Fliss sighed, her lips reeling in disgust at the sight, “I don’t think it’s Dave or the other one though. Must be one of the ones they sent in to look for Conrad.”

“Come on guys, we gotta keep looking,” Alex said, pushing forward as he carefully stepped over the body of the pirate. Coming upon the pile of flesh and bones that he wouldn’t say was even a human being once. He hesitated before reaching over for the door handle, sleek of blood coating his hand causing him to slip as he tried to turn the door open. When it finally did, the squash of the remains of the once coastguard was what they tried to ignore as they delicately stepped over the person.

All that mattered at the moment was getting to Conrad and then getting the hell out of here, and getting back to the mainland.

None of them liked to think about what was happening, what had happened on this ship, not about how they had just witnessed two people die brutally in one case.

But they refused to stop, refused to simply give up and go back home as much as they would like that.

They were all going to escape this nightmare, and they were all going to make it back home.

They had to.

As they walked down the corridor, they braced themselves for what other terrors they may encounter. They carefully treaded through the ships, taking every step with careful thought, glancing into every room, hoping to see Conrad.

And that’s when they heard it, a soft muttering, trembling stutter, a shuffling against metal.


	5. Chapter Five

There were beads of cold sweat trickling down his forehead, a cooling sensation that Conrad welcomed against the fire that was his skin. The blood that had been steadily streaming from him had started to harden into a thick and sticky texture, the edges even starting to flake, causing his hand to stick uncomfortably to the wound on his leg.

“G-gonna die…” He muttered aloud, his breath shivering and hitching with the effort. “In a f-fucking boat. Eaten by fucking r-rats. Least it’s not in a fucking toilet though.” A sharp inhale. “A-always gotta l-look at the positives.”

Conrad thinks death should be peace and quiet, maybe reliving his greatest hits, seeing his loved ones again, those he should have appreciated more. He's apprehensive of it, he doesn't think he's ready for it, he's meant to have something to reflect on but what had he done before now. If he'd had known death was coming for him so soon, he might've planned his life a little differently.

Conrad doesn't want to die. There was too much he wanted to do, he hadn't gotten to know Fliss, not really. Too much he had wanted to say but never got to. The thought of going with so many people he cared about still left alive he doesn't know will be okay after this, it wasn't right.

So with the weight and call of death pulling him down, as painless now as falling back to sleep and as sure as the turning of the world, his consciousness barely on the verge of this horrid filled life he had found himself in, his sight catching the tiniest glimpse of movement around him that he couldn't care to figure out if it was another monster coming to prey upon him. Or perhaps Julia coming to finish whatever she had started. Conrad doesn't want to die. He wants to live, not for himself, but for the others.

A voice interrupted his train of thoughts.

“… Conrad…”

Same voice as before, though it sounded different, different but same. Same but different.

When something touched him on his shoulder, startling him at the sensation.

“h-hey,” Conrad stuttered, unable to speak coherently. “Don’t fucking t-touch me…”

The thing seemed to respect his request, if only for a moment, before ignoring his command and simply moved to make the same motion again, whispering his name again.

“…Conrad…”

There was no more movement for a while. A rustling perhaps but Conrad wasn’t too sure.

Where… where did it go?

Still laying on the floor, Conrad hesitantly cast his eyes up trying to focus on what was around him. Slightly perplexed by what he was seeing.

That thing was nowhere to be seen. But Julia was.

Julia shot him.

But now she looks worried… sad.

Did that thing walk away for good?

Or is this a trick?

“Thi-s is just another trick…” It was a cruel thing that twisted in his gut, tangling his insides up till he felt like he couldn't breathe. The thought of it showing kindness before his death seemed worse than just outright being cold. 

“Conrad, I swear to you that this isn’t.” This voice was a knife through the fog, so strong and puncturing it was like it had actually hit Conrad. “Conrad, it’s Fliss.”

“Fliss?”

“…guys his leg…”

“A-lex?”

“Yeah… we’re gonna have to move… come on, Conrad…”

He felt movement jerking his leg. In any other occasion he might have fought against it, but he was just too tired right now. Too tired to care what they were doing. The weight that had burrowed in his bones felt like it had pinned him down. Drained of all energy, Conrad let them do whatever they were going to do. Monsters or not, Conrad figured he was pretty much dead at this point. There was no real point in fighting it now.

Time moved in blackout phases. Conrad didn’t remember them getting him semi-standing, nor did he remember the trip down the corridor. He remembered the bodies they passed, remembered the grotesque things laughing at him as they passed. He didn’t remember getting back on the boat nor eventually falling asleep.

——

The next he woke it was to the rocking, a crashing that was oddly soothing. He noticed that he could breathe smoothly like the air wasn’t thick tar trying to worm its way down to his lungs. The second thing he notices was that it was bright, too bright in fact. A jarring juxtapose against all that he had to know for the past day.

“Connie…” A soft, tired voice spoke.

Conrad squeezed his eyes shut, a spike in his heart that he couldn't stop spread like ink through water. “I swear if this is another trick…”

“No trick, brother,” Julia smiled, a weariness weighing it down. “God, I’m so glad you’re alive, you idiot.”

It was too real. It was too normal. It couldn't be happening. It overrides him, he feels like his entire body seizes up and is locked. Tears prick at his eyes when the overwhelming sensation that he _couldn't breathe _comes into his awareness.

Conrad tried to grab reality, press it against himself. Failed. It drifted, again. Slow, shallow breaths turned to rapid intakes.

He couldn't breathe couldn't-

Couldn't think-

He realised that it (_Julia?) _was trying to say something. 

He needed this fog to clear, needed to-

_The thumping in his palm. He pressed it, digging into the miserable heat to sear through the haze and find reality. The pain, humming, was bright and enlightening. Just needed somewhere else, just needed to be-_

-stay focused. Enough to discern what was in front of him, lay out the reality in front of him in clear terms. Something he could grasp and understand without chipping away whatever senses he had left.

"Brother, breathe!" 

It worked. A thread had been given to him and he unraveled it like yarn. Laying it and pressing it against himself. Did it matter if it was a reality? It was kindness he hadn't been granted since he had found himself in this limbo. The fears, when they had been with him, hadn't been kind. This was a reality. A reality real for him

Staring. Blood trickling under torn skin and dirt mixing with every push that dug deeper. Staring at a ceiling, muted and white, dull yet bright and too bright and too clean-

_go somewhere else_

_ go back-_

The pain was dragging him back forcefully and Conrad gasped and sagged against the bed.

"Please, brother." Soft words spilled into him. "Please, brother."

_it felt like rain, the droplets from the rusted roof_

_ cold and freeing across his body and the cold metal shone_

_ a bang, clapping like a thunderstorm before the world tilted on him_

Heat, a miserable thing that pooled in his leg and he felt the world fracture around him, a crack in the glass and it kept splitting.

_splitting_

until the quietness set in. And then the rhythm of feet shuffled, but the quietness in his head stayed. A dull thumping, in the pain in his leg, in that searing heat- but he hadn't. He was still there. 

It had gone. Gentle hands had come, pulling at him. Dragging him up. It had gone, and the ghosts with familiar faces dragged him away, back to someplace new, someplace old, and Conrad was back on his knees again, heaving up nothing but bile onto a floor. It was new. Wooden, feeling the smoothness of it under foreign fingers that couldn't be his. Too dirty. Too much blood.

He couldn't think, though the fog, the mist, now (breathing in thick air down to his lungs and a heaviness filled him-). That was how he remembered. Polaroid moments. Heat in his body. Taste of bile. A ghost of a monster (_sister). _Fear, fear. Sharp burns up his arm, and something more horrid under his skin. It moved. Pressing against his insides, invading. 

A flash, paused. A new face, yet the same one.

Conrad's eyes fluttered. The thread returned and coiled around him, choked him till he faded without knowing the difference. 

\--

Conrad had been delirious, by the time they had stepped back onto the boats, he had turned a muted grey, every muscle in him like a live wire. 

Julia didn't touch him. Not after-

Not after the first time she had tried when they got back to the boat. It wasn't instant. He was there in the beginning, but then like a bowstring that had been cut, he had snapped. She couldn't watch yet she had to. He devolved into something she never wanted to see, he sobbed and shook. At one point he had dug at the bandages Alex had worked on, pressing so hard that Julia flinched before trying to get him to stop, watching the pool of blood build in his palm. 

He didn't see her. He looked at her yet didn't see. 

And that was what hit Julia. He wasn't seeing her, he didn't look at her like he used, instead he was looking at her like she was a monster. Like she was one of the things on the ship. It was heartbreaking, shattering her chip by chip until she felt like there were too many pieces to gather back up again. He spaces again, and suddenly she isn't there at all. White noise to her brother and he's fighting something else that isn't visible to her. 

Alex had come in at some point, Julia was sure that Brad and Fliss were hovering behind as well. 

Conrad wasn't looking at them, wasn't speaking, yet; his body convulsed and Julia felt helpless against it. It went on for too long, but it slowed, Conrad's body tired out, gave in and slowly he was gone again though Julia felt he never actually was there, to begin with. 

The coastguard had returned, they had departed on the other boat while Fliss had this one, Dave didn't seem to question how Conrad had gotten back on the boat. He looked worn down from whatever he'd discovered on that ship. Brad had noted they were missing one. Only three coastguards had returned. Fliss upon having a hushed conversation with Dave discovered that Warren hadn't made it. Brenton had been discovered near the body, the one they had all passed in the hallway, catatonic. He hadn't said anything to anyone and no one was exactly sure what had happened there, probably wouldn't until- if Brenton talked about it. The pirate's, Danny, the body had been found there as well. They would call it in, Dave said, get someone to come and get the remains of both. 

Fliss had tried to not think about Conrad. There wasn't much more they could do for him until they got back to the mainland anyhow. _He'll be okay. We'll be okay. _

The captain flexed her hands and walked herself to the edge of the boat. Given that she could no longer see the ship on the horizon, the view was a lot more calming then it had been.

"Do you think he's okay?" Fliss was startled slightly, unaware that Brad had walked up beside her until he spoke. "I mean- of course, he's not okay, he looks- he looks like he was put through a blender times ten."

"Half of that shit, his arm, looks like he did that to himself," Fliss sighed, ringing her fingers."I honestly don't think any of will be but god to be in that place for that long? I'm surprised he's still alive."

Brad instinctively moved forward to be beside her, momentarily forgetting his own worries and fears. There was a brief moment where they felt like there was no one else around them, they could pretend that their friends weren't suffering in the deck below.

"You know, I never apologised for attacking you... back on the ship," Brad closed his eyes, a sense of shame filling him low in the pit of his stomach. "I would never do something like that I-"

"Brad," Fliss hushes him with a strange gentleness that seemed too foreign on her. "I know you wouldn't, I know you weren't in the right frame of mind, it's okay, I forgive you."

They could unite in the combined silence neither having to say anything yet finding comfort in each other's presence. It was an odd thing, feeling like you had known someone your entire life yet only knowing for a couple of days. Perhaps shared trauma did that to people, perhaps knowing that they would never forget this gave them all that special connection. 


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oh my, I am deathly sorry about the wait for the conclusion. I had a draft of this chapter written up and then I was debating on whether to add more even though this felt like a good place to finish. Then time flew away from me and I didn't find the motivation to come back to this one.
> 
> Here it is. I did have plans for a continuation for this story but the end felt right. 
> 
> Thank you all for your continued support, I'm going to work through replying to comments from last chapter. 
> 
> Kudos/Comments would be lovely.

The next he woke it was to the rocking, a crashing that was oddly soothing. He noticed that he could breathe smoothly like the air wasn’t thick tar trying to worm its way down to his lungs, encapsulate and suffocate him. The second thing he notices was that it was bright, too bright in fact. A jarring juxtapose against all that he had to know for the past day.

“Connie…” A soft, tired voice spoke. It was alluring.

_Too alluring…_

_another trick._

_…shouldn’t trust_

Conrad squeezed his eyes shut, as though the action would dispel the illusion. “I swear if this is another trick…” it was like sandpaper, spiking through his throat.

“No trick, brother,” Julia smiled, a weariness weighing her down that he wasn’t use to. “God, I’m so glad you’re alive, you idiot.”

“Hey, no need for name-calling now…” Conrad’s voice grated against his throat, the fog in his mind was like a heaviness he had never felt before, it weighed his limbs down like anchors, addled his mind. “What happened?”

“What happened is you thought it would be a good idea to board an unknown vessel by yourself to play the hero,”Fliss leaned against the entrance of the room, Conrad thought that she leaned on it too much. She sagged into it with such relief that it was as though she couldn’t stand on her own. “And then got yourself shot among other things.”

“And I’m so lucky to have such a beautiful saviour to rescue me.” Conrad quipped, wincing slightly as he pulled himself upright. “Are you guys alright? I mean- I thought that…”

“You thought we were still kidnapped?”

There was a mixture of emotions that Conrad couldn’t discern on the two women’s faces. Julia finished for him. “We were but…it turns out that Manchurian Gold was on that ship.”

“Those guys took us to that ship, hoping to find it.” Fliss added, a haziness washing through her eyes.

“Oh.”

And it was like the flood gates had opened and he remembered the-

(hands on him, pulling, dragging him down, bearing hard into the rusted metal against his skin, couldn’t, couldn’t-)

The narrative he tried to piece was jagged and cut, a puzzle he didn’t want to be formed yet was plunged into it.

Conrad didn’t want to put it into a linear story, lay it out in front of himself when the sweetness of oblivion lingered on his mind. Resist. Drift again. Slow and shallow. Breath.

It was a moment before Conrad spoke again. “Did you guys… see shit in there?”

“We all did.” Julia nodded, a thin ray of sunlight illuminated his sister, a warmness surrounded her so close he could feel it. “But none of it was real. It was a chemical or something.”

“A bioweapon from the war,” Fliss explained, she looked just as he remembered her. Tight tank yet now torn, shorts dirtied. Wouldn’t seem out of place if not for the peppers of blood spots that Conrad couldn’t find out the source of. The taste of metal still in Conrad’s mouth.

“You should change,” Conrad said hoarsely. He remembered packing, had seen how Julia had stuffed more than she needed, a pinch on her face like so was plotting every occasion on her face.

Fliss glanced down, eyes drifting down to the clothes she had on. “Yeah, maybe."

There was a horrible pooling heat inside his chest that had been there since he grew tired on that ship. Pulsing and growing with every beat of his heart. It seemed that with every sip of air that he took, however, that pool simmered and cooled, just enough that the pulse in his ear, hand, and leg were a bigger problem for him to focus on.

Julia and Fliss had become blurred shapes, glowing in the light that streamed inside the boat from the windows. The tassels of the blanket that enveloped him, dulled greys and muted. It was so warm, warm compared to the coldness in the ship. If he had the choice, he’d bury himself under I more than just this rough blanket. He wanted to be-

Home.

“Connie, are you okay?” Julia asked.

Conrad turned his blurred vision to her. He was supposed to be reassuring her, but the fog of his mind crippled by whatever pain medication they have given him was whisking his head away. He was supposed to be how she remembered him, facing down this experience as though it was a rough night out, like anything else he’d down with a bottle.

Reciting certainties he no longer held.

“Of course, Julia.” Start at the beginning. Stay at the beginning. “I’m fine.’


End file.
